Hello Fellow Stressers..

Is it possible to perform geometric/material non-linearity in Caesar II considering large displacement where stiffness is changing with displacement and tangent stiffness (Kt) is updating based on incremental loads. Say for HDPE piping where the coefficient of thermal expansion is very high.

Cheers!!

No - some of the assumptions behind all the current piping codes include:

1) Small displacements and rotations (so the local stiffness matrix doesn't change with the deflection of the element).

2) The material behavior of the system is linear-elastic.

3) The cross-section of the element remains constant.

Thanks Richard for the info.

Maybe if really needed, a local FEA of the component say elbow, tee, etc. can be performed thru FEA with the applied global loads taken from beam element software.

Warm Regards,